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Teach Students to Spot Fake Information Online

Students need skills for judging online information. Short lessons build habits.

Step by step

  1. Teach lateral reading. Open new tabs to check who is behind a source.
  2. Check images. Reverse image search.
  3. Compare sources.
  4. Discuss AI errors.
  5. Practice weekly.

What to expect

Expect short lessons with examples, steps and discussion questions.

Mistakes to avoid

Do not use real hoaxes that could upset students. Avoid teaching that everything online is false. Teach checking, not cynicism.

A good next step

Practice one claim a week as a class warm-up.

A worked example

A teacher uses a 20-minute lesson on checking a viral claim. Students open new tabs to find who made it, and they discover it came from a satire site.

A prompt you can copy

Type this into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini

Create a 20 minute lesson for grade [x] on checking whether an online claim is true, with an example, steps students can follow and an exit question.

Good to know. Use examples that are age-appropriate and avoid harmful content.

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Common questions

How often?

A short routine weekly.

Which tools?

Search engines and fact-checking sites.

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